Days of Inspiration
by Dayna Marie and kitsunequeen93
Summary: Teen! sorta AU, preRENT. Pairings inside! Two friends in Scarsdale are trying to deal with school,  boyfriends, crushes, a crossdressing cousin, and a certain special goldfish. Megan and Danielle plus the teenage Bohos equals one heck of a school year!


Hola pimps! kitsunequeen93 and Dayna Marie are here with our first co-written RENT fic. Review peeps, and swing on by our separate accounts for more fan fiction. Review those, too. We might have some trouble getting time to work on this together, especially after school starts back up, but we'll update as fast as we can. Dedicated to Kassie (missxflawless) for reading this chapter before we posted it, to make sure we weren't making complete fools of ourselves! THANK YOU KASSIE!!!!!!

Pairings:

Mark x OC (main)

One-sided OC x Angel

Angel x Collins

Mentions of Maureen x Joanne and Roger x OC

Disclaimer: We don't own RENT or it's characters, D.E.B., Levi's, Hot Topic, Huffy, Hollister, American Eagle, Fanta, Cheese-in-a-cup, or, umm, fruit…cake. Oh, and we kinda borrowed amahzing from Seth Rudetsky. Yay, Seth! (fan girl squeal from Dayna)

* * *

Danielle Simons walked along the gigantic hallway of the Scarsdale Plaza Mall, Scarsdale, New York's only fun place to hang out. She almost always spent Christmas break here, wandering aimlessly through the stores. Her almond-shaped, blue-grey eyes played over the storefronts as she blew a strand of chestnut brown, wavy, chest-length hair away from her pale, heart-shaped face. Danielle sauntered into D.E.B., the mall's only reasonably priced teen clothing store, and pored over the racks, trying to find a good-looking skirt for her Cousin Roger's birthday party on Monday. Mark was going to be there, so she had to look amahzing.

Mark Cohen was Danielle's long time crush, her Cousin Roger's best friend, and also happened to be her best friend Megan's older brother. Every time Danielle thought of his short, sandy blonde hair, trademark scarf (she was one of the few people in the world who knew he secretly called it "Mr. Scarfy"), and adorably dorky glasses, she felt faint and dizzy. Unfortunately for Danielle, Mark thought she was, and I quote, "Nuttier than Grandma Tzietel's Hanukkah fruitcake." Oh well, she'd make him see what he was missing at Roger's party on Monday.

After fifteen minutes of browsing, Danielle picked out an adorable blue corduroy miniskirt. As she was turning around to head for the dressing room, a voice chimed up behind her.

"Oooooh, cute skirt,_ chica_!"

Danielle turned around to see who had spoken to her, and every thought of Mark hat had ever been in her head left faster than you can say _"Huevos Rancheros." _A super-cute guy was standing over by the skirt racks, looking right at her. He was a few inches taller than her, and looked a bit on the Hispanic side, with buzz-cut black hair, olive skin, and big, sparkling green eyes. He was wearing a red zip-up hoodie, old-but-pleasantly-distressed looking jeans, and sensible sneakers. Danielle froze up, and the little voice in her mind started screaming at the top of its lungs.

'_CUTE GUY ALERT! SAY SOMETHING! SPEAK, DAMMIT! MAKE WORDS FLOW FROM YOUR MOUTH, YOU GUTLESS WONDER!!!!!'_

"Uh... Th-thank you?"

'Cute Skirt Guy,' as Danielle had mentally dubbed him, smiled, showing off perfect, never-needed-braces, pearly white teeth. "No problem telling the truth, _chica,_" he said. "But, I would pick that grey color over there instead of the blue. It'll accent your eyes more."

Danielle ran back to the skirt rack, swapped the blue skirt for a grey one of the same design, and sped toward the dressing room, Cute Skirt Guy following behind at a leisurely pace. She put on the skirt with a white satin button-up blouse, and walked out of the dressing room. Cute Skirt Guy stood outside, smiling.

"_Muy bien, chica_. Looks brilliant."

Danielle beamed, walked back into the dressing room, and changed back into her Levi's and Hot Topic T-shirt. As she walked up toward the register holding the skirt and blouse, she waved to Cute Skirt Guy. "Thanks for all the help."

He smiled. _"No problemo, chica. Adios."_ As she walked out, she could have sworn she saw Cute Skirt Guy paying for the blue miniskirt she had abandoned for the grey one.

Danielle walked out to the bike racks by the door, unchained her electric blue Huffy (a hand-me-down from Mark she had gotten for her last birthday), and threw her D.E.B. bag into the basket on the handlebars. With that, she mounted the bike and pedaled toward the Cohen residence.

Danielle was at the Cohen's in five minutes. She parked her bike on the sidewalk, grabbed her shopping bags, and sprinted across the neatly manicured lawn, up to the large, old brick house. She rang the doorbell, impatiently waiting for Megan to come to the door. When the door opened, Cute Skirt Guy was standing inside. Danielle nearly fainted from shock, and began stammering.

"Wha??? Y-you and... At... M-megan and M-mark's House??? Eh???"

Within seconds, Megan Cohen appeared behind Cute Skirt Guy. "Was he bothering you?" she asked her best friend. Danielle shook her head, still in shock. Megan shot a glare at Cute Skirt Guy and began conversing with him in rapid Spanish. _"Angel, vamos!"_

Cute Skirt Guy (or was it Angel?) looked at her with a confused stare. _"Por que?"_

Megan gave him an annoyed look._ "Andale, estupido!" _Cute Skirt Guy glared at her, but walked off, muttering under his breath in Spanish. Megan turned around and rolled her eyes, and Danielle was able to get a better look at her best friend.

The male population if Roosevelt High, Scarsdale's only High School, had been known to call Danielle Simons and Megan Cohen "The Smokin' Duo," and had given the title with good reason. The two BFF's were easily the best looking girls in Scarsdale, not to mention at RHS, even though their looks and styles were completely different from one another. While Danielle, with her dark hair, pale skin, and slightly gothic style possessed a dark, exotic sort of beauty; Megan was the polar opposite. She looked a lot like everyone else in the Cohen family, with stick-straight, waist length, sandy blonde hair framing a freckle-covered, round face. Wide-set, turquoise blue eyes sparkled behind rectangular-framed glasses that rested on a button nose. She wasn't Hot Topic's biggest customer, so to speak, and preferred to clothe her lithe, slim frame in Hollister T-shirts and American Eagle jeans. Although Danielle was probably the better looking one, Megan tended to get a few more admirers because of her typical, all-American-sweetheart personality and style. And indeed, she did have a very sweet demeanor... that is until you ticked her off... she was known to get rather violent, even with Roger Davis, her boyfriend of six months.

Danielle flopped down on the leather couch in the Cohen's living room, wearing her new outfit. "Rate me on a scale of one to ten," she said, looking lazily up at Megan.

Megan sighed. "I told you three minutes ago, the outfit's a 9.5, what could have changed?"

"I could've gotten prettier..."

"Shut up."

Danielle sighed, too bored to pick up the remote to switch channels on Mark's beloved 24-inch TV. "So why is Cute Skirt Guy at your house?"

"Huh!?"

Danielle propped herself up on one elbow, looking her friend in the eye. "Why was that Spanish-speaking dude in your house, Megan?"

"Oh, Angel? 'Cute Skirt Guy' is my cousin, just moved here from Spain. Angel's crashing with us while my aunt gets the new house in order."

Danielle gave Megan a befuddled stare. "Meg, your entire family is made up of Polish Jews... How could you possibly have a cousin from Spain?"

Megan brushed a string of hair behind her ear and adjusted her glasses, looking uncomfortable with the situation. "Angel... well... she's not exactly my real cousin, she's adopted..."

Danielle spit the orange Fanta she had been drinking all over the coffee table. "Wait just a second! She?!?!"

Megan giggled nervously. "Yeah, about that, Angel's kind of... well... different... she's a little on the drag queenish side, actually..."

"Seriously? That's awesome! I heart drag queens! Anyway, where's my Markie?"

Megan rolled her eyes. "He's faking a cold, so mom would force me to wait on him hand and foot all day... WHAT IS IT NOW, MARK!?" a bell had rung from the direction of Mark's bedroom.

A fully-healthy sounding, disembodied voice answered. "Get me some lunch, twerp, or I'll tell mom you didn't take care of me!"

"Get it yourself, dork! You have company here anyway!"

Mark called from his room again. "Oh, did Roger come by to drop off my video game he borrowed?"

"Uh... sure..." Megan smiled mischievously, looking over at Danielle, hoping she would do what she always did when Mark walked into the room.

Mark Cohen sauntered into the living room, wearing a bathrobe and lounge pants, his blonde hair disheveled. "So, where's... OH DEAR GOD, NOT YOU!"

"MARKIE!" Danielle had tackle-hugged her friend's older brother, and was now attached to his neck like a leech, refusing to let him up. "I'm so glad to see you! I thought I'd have to wait for Roger's party! So, want to go get dinner later?"

"NO!" Mark screeched, trying to wiggle his way free. "Meg, if you love me, you'll get her off..."

Megan smiled sadistically. "I'll call her off if you confess to mom that you faked sick to get out of visiting Grandma Tzietel."

"FINE! Just get this whacko offa me!"

Megan nodded. "Hey Danielle, we have some Cheese-in-a-cup ready in the kitchen..."

Danielle jumped up from the floor and ran toward the kitchen, and Mark made a break for his room. Danielle caught on to the diversion and ran after him, but Mark had locked his door. Danielle cackled insanely. "You can't hide from me forever, Markie! You're going to have to eat or pee sometime! I can wait! I CAN WAIT!"

Megan sighed, running a hand through her blonde locks. Between a cross-dressing cousin, a demanding older brother, A boyfriend too busy with his music to at least take her to a movie once in a while, and a best friend with an obsessive crush, this was going to be one very interesting Christmas break...


End file.
